What would we ever do without our lamestream media?
Adam Afriyie’s electioneering inspired calls for an EU referendum to be held before the General Election are back in the ‘news’. He has managed to push for a vote to bring forward Cameron’s proposed referendum, so his profile has been dusted off as the Mail indulges its fascination for parliamentary spats.
It is there we find that Simon Walters is in ‘educational’ mode, sharing his very special insider insights:
Afriyie hasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of winning Friday’s vote. But merely by forcing a vote on the issue, he could snatch one of Cameron’s Election trump cards from his hand.
The Prime Minister’s ploy of offering an EU referendum in 2017 is his only realistic hope of wooing back fed-up Tories from UKIP and, in turn, his only hope of winning the Election.
A 2014 referendum would wreck that. For all his anti-Brussels rhetoric, Cameron does not want to go down in history as the man who led the UK out of Europe.
And he believes there is far too little time before Afriyie’s chosen date, October 23 next year, to win concessions from Brussels needed to secure the ‘yes’ vote the Prime Minister secretly wants.
No doubt this revelation will cause a great deal of excitement. Who shared this secret with Walters? What was behind it being leaked? Is there a naysayer deep inside Cameron’s inner circle who doesn’t agree with him? This clearly is clearly big news. Why it isn’t on the front page is a mystery. Thank God someone has revealed this to us.
Sarcasm aside, the story offers a smidgen of value as it reinforces the point that Afriyie isn’t doing this because he passionately believes in people having their democratic say or because he wants the UK to withdraw from the EU. Afriyie’s motives are partisan in the extreme…
I did this because my conscience demanded it.
I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if, out of 650 MPs, not a single MP said, “Hang on a second, we should at least be trying to get a referendum in this Parliament.” The Conservatives are sleep-walking to electoral defeat if we don’t have a referendum before 2015.
Some conscience. Clearly Mr Afriyie is this Parliament’s leader of the self preservation society.
Autonomous Mind 
XX Some conscience. Clearly Mr Afriyie is this Parliament’s leader of the self preservation society. XX
OR he could, just COULD be, one of those rare breeds of politician that actualy BELIVES in democcracy?
I give him the benefit of the doubt.
Did you not read his comment? His sole interest is about the Conservatives winning the next election. He’s said nothing about any imperatives about the EU.
Not forgetting that Mr Afriyie voted in favour of the Lisbon Treaty in July 2010
http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2010-07-14&number=25&mpn=Adam_Afriyie&mpc=Windsor&house=commons
The impression I get of Afriyie’s position is that he thinks the Conservatives have a lot of problems on this issue of cast iron promises (that no one believes) which might cost them the next election. He would like to get that dealt with before the election.
It is entirely about avoiding being painted as the party of promises without delivery in 2015.
I’m pretty sure Afriyie is pro-EU membership. He probably thinks Dave is getting ahead of himself in assuming the Conservatives will be the party of government and be in a position to go to Brussels and negotiate.
The Daily Mail wrote: “A 2014 referendum would wreck that. For all his anti-Brussels rhetoric, Cameron does not want to go down in history as the man who led the UK out of Europe.”
Imo Dave doesn’t want to go down in history as the man who cemented the UK in Europe either as it would do away with our ability to threaten to pretend thinking about the possibility of considering how we might approach leaving. Besides which Dave wouldn’t be leading us out of the EU if he was campaigning for a ‘in’ vote. So I don’t think that claim makes much sense.
We will get a referendum if and when Brussels and Westminster can cook up an arrangement that suits them both that they think they can sell to the public.